12 Facts About Grigory Levenfish

Grigory Levenfish was twice Soviet champion, in 1934 and 1937.

In 1950 Levenfish was among the first recipients of the title of Grandmaster, awarded by FIDE that year for the first time.

Grigory Levenfish spent most of his formative years in St Petersburg, where he attended Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology and studied chemical engineering.

Grigory Levenfish was the only strong Soviet master of his generation who was denied a stipend.

Grigory Levenfish was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE, the world chess federation, in 1950, the year the title was introduced officially.

Grigory Levenfish, who had a wretched look, was clutching a handkerchief to his mouth and declared that he had just had six teeth extracted.

Vasily Smyslov recounts the time that Grigory Levenfish visited him, towards the end of his life, armed with a huge pile of papers.

Grigory Levenfish asked Smyslov to check for errors, and some minor corrections later, the book was published bearing both names, under the title Teoriya ladeynykh okonchaniy, later published in English in 1971 under the title Rook Endings.

Grigory Levenfish's posthumously published autobiography, Izbrannye partii i vospominaniya, contained 79 annotated games.

Grigory Levenfish was an opening theorist; the Levenfish Attack, a variation of the Sicilian Defence, is named after him.

Grigory Levenfish defeated virtually all of the top Russian and Soviet players from the 1910s to the early 1950s, and beat world champions Alexander Alekhine and Emanuel Lasker as well.

Grigory Levenfish was strong on the Black side of the French Defence and the Slav Defence, and generally preferred classical openings such as Ruy Lopez and Queen's Gambit, although he did from time to time toy with the hypermodern Grunfeld Defence and Nimzo-Indian Defence.